Dustin Martin leads AFL for turnovers, concedes third-most points from turnovers

DUSTIN Martin is just about the complete player having an awesome season. But one stat will make Richmond fans nervous heading into September.

Dustin Martin’s kicking can bring the Tigers unstuck.

DUSTIN Martin is just about the complete player.

He wins his own footy, can go forward and outmark key defenders and could kick the goal that ends decades of finals agony for Richmond fans.

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The problem is he could just as easily cough up the goal that costs the Tigers.

Despite a brilliant season that has him raging favourite for the Brownlow Medal, Martin has one unexpected and very costly flaw in his game.

Dustin Martin is a super kick — but they don’t always come off.

It’s the coach-killer stat: points conceded directly from turnovers.

Michael Hurley could be All-Australian but he is the competition leader for this category, committting 98 turnovers this year that have directly resulted in 113 points — more than 18 goals — to the opposition.

Sydney’s Jake Lloyd is No.2, with his 75 bloopers costing the Swans 107 points.

Heath Shaw, Taylor Adams and Zach Tuohy also feature in the top 10, but it’s not surprising that defenders rank highly — if they stuff up a kick it’s not far from the opposition goal, increasing the chances of a score.

So the name that stands out is Martin, who comes in at No.3 and is one of only three players to concede more than 100 points directly from his turnovers this year.

Points conceded from turnovers

	Player	Club	Turnovers	Points conceded
1	Michael Hurley	Essendon	98	113
2	Jake Lloyd	Sydney Swans	75	107
3	Dustin Martin	Richmond	128	103
4	Alex Sexton	Gold Coast Suns	76	96
5	Aaron Hall	Gold Coast Suns	80	90
6	Heath Shaw	GWS Giants	71	88
7	Taylor Adams	Collingwood	91	88
8	Matt Crouch	Adelaide	99	87
9	Sam Mayes	Brisbane Lions	76	87
10	Zach Tuohy	Geelong	103	87

And the number of Dusty turnovers dwarfs everyone else on the list. In fact, his 128 turnovers is the most in the competition this season. He also has the worst disposal-to-turnover ratio of the top 50 disposal winners.

This is largely the result of Martin having licence to try dangerous high-risk, high-reward kicks — if he gets the footy at half-back forget the safe option down the line. Instead, get ready for a Dusty dart into the centre square that opens up the entire field for whoever wins the footy.

Richmond coach Damien Hardwick is banking on the fact that goes the Tigers’ way often enough to make the risks worthwhile.

It also helps that Martin rates elite for disposals, contested possessions, clearances, metres gained, inside-50s, goals and score assists.

TOP 10 TURNOVERS

1	Dustin Martin	Richmond	128
2	Zach Merrett	Essendon	110
3	Zach Tuohy	Geelong Cats	103
4	Sam Docherty	Carlton	101
5	Matt Crouch	Adelaide Crows	99
6	Michael Hurley	Essendon	98
7	Tom Mitchell	Hawthorn	98
8	Rory Laird	Adelaide Crows	97
9	Marc Murphy	Carlton	96
10	Dayne Zorko	Brisbane Lions	95

TOP 10 WORST DISPOSAL TO TURNOVER RATIO

1	Dustin Martin	Richmond	4.48
2	Zach Tuohy	Geelong Cats	4.60
3	Dayne Zorko	Brisbane Lions	4.76
4	Michael Hurley	Essendon	4.83
5	Trent Cotchin	Richmond	4.83
6	Kade Simpson	Carlton	4.92
7	Dylan Roberton	St Kilda	4.93
8	Shaun Grigg	Richmond	5.01
9	Jack Newnes	St Kilda	5.07
10	Bradley Hill	Fremantle	5.11

DUSTIN MARTIN 2017

	Ave	Rating
Disposals	30.2	ELITE
Kick Rating	+0.2%	AVERAGE
Contested Possessions	14.4	ELITE
Clearances	6.9	ELITE
Metres Gained	549	ELITE
Inside 50s	6.5	ELITE
Goals	1.4	ELITE
Score Assists	1.6	ELITE
Score Involvements	8.6	ELITE